insanity at its best
by OveliaGirlHaditRight
Summary: Sora vanishes, dims, fades at the end of Kingdom Hearts III-much like the Master of Masters did in Back Cover-and this is because Sora is him via a paradox. And when Sora disappears at the end of KHIII, he gets sent back to the Key era and lives out his time as the Master of Masters there-trying to get back to his beloved Kairi, all the while... Except that she was once Ava.


…It wasn't- right, the way that he was treating the Foretellers. And Sora knew it.

And he hated himself for it… And maybe the darkness was seeping into him for that, ever so slightly, and making his Rage Form even stronger. But it was what it was.

He didn't mean to be so ho-hum about the fate of the world, since he knew just how much it had sucked when Xehanort had done that to them.

If there was any way to stop it—and make sure that everything ended up as it was meant to, with his friends and him—Sora would have been the first trying to discover it…

But even before some strange paradox, that had led to his eye being on the Keyblade he had hated most of his life (and still did) and had allowed him to see the future (aside from having experienced it himself)… he had known it was impossible.

He also didn't mean to be so upbeat about everything—as his pupils (gosh, that was still weird to think about) were falling apart at the seams. And who wouldn't be?—but that was just always his personality, even when things were at their most dire. And Sora felt that if he tried to repress that now, he'd go even more insane than he was already becoming.

As for why he was secretly being mean to some of his apprentices… Sora had no idea. And this was what scared him more than anything, and made him think that maybe the darkness really was getting to him.

Because why would he do this? Was their youth and optimism such a funny thing to him now, because he'd seen where that got everyone?

Gods, if that was the case… what would Kairi ever see in him now?

…And there was the crux of a lot of this, wasn't it? Sora had accepted so much of this—so he could finally get back to his beloved Kairi, who he never should have been separated from to begin with.

It made Sora… bitter, to think about that second chance he thought that had been given to them—when they'd been holding hands more intimately than ever before, on the paopu tree—just for it to be ripped away again.

And to imagine Xehanort ki-

No.

He wouldn't go there.

He wouldn't.

Sora would get back to her… they'd finally be happy and together, like they'd always deserved to be… and he wouldn't become besotted to Ava in the process of getting there.

As it turned out—and how this had tortured Sora when he'd first discovered it, and still did now—Kairi was actually a reincarnation of one of the Foretellers: Of Ava.

And there had been a traitorous part of Sora, that had—at first—dreamed about telling Ava everything, and just being with this Kairi here.

…Except that she wasn't exactly his Kairi yet—they certainly weren't the same here (and, in fact, they had a bit of an age difference now, that Sora felt uncomfortable about)—…and it just wouldn't work, and be disingenuous if he tried it…

And surely muck up timelines, so there was a chance neither one of them would even be born!

So as hard as it was, Sora made the wise and best decision to stay away from Ava—though he couldn't help loving her all the same, even if she was simultaneously stronger and weaker than his Kairi—but he was still attracted to her more than he would have liked to say. (It wasn't fair, since Kairi had just opened the door to him wanting romantic love… only for them to get pushed away from each other right after it had happened. So now he had all these feelings that he had no way of dealing with yet.)

And he despised that he now had to let Ava march to her death—as fate said she must—just so she could be reborn into Kairi.

Was he even letting it happen—if he could somehow stop it, with no ill effects—so she wouldbecome Kairi? Sora wasn't sure.

But he did know that when he began telling her about the Union Leaders—and the person circled in red—that she'd argue with him… for a plethora of reasons.

And a part of him was glad for it. Because even though this was right(?), and it would lead them back to the way everything was supposed to be…

Sora wanted to die for the lives he was toying with, and going to destroy—even though they had already been that. This had already happened—and he wanted her to call him out on it, and the other reasons she shouldn't trust him.

And she did.

Not as much as Sora had been hoping—not like his Kairi would have—but maybe enough (and he prayed she was doing more of it in her head), when she asked him if taking everyone's memories away would just make them repeat the Keyblade War here.

…Sora didn't really have an answer to that. He just knew, through Naminé, that having memories of dangerous things (like his false obsession with her) wasn't a good thing, so he was banking on this being the right decision here.

And he gave some crazy explanation about it—that he could barely follow himself, and that he knew was the kind his enemies had used to use to string him along.

And it seemed to work.

Not long after that, Sora disappeared like he thought he would—the way he had from Kairi all those years in the future—as he slowly but surely was brought back to the present.

As that happened, he dreamed:

Of Kairi's beauty and her full heart, that had saved him so many times—and how beautiful she'd looked as she'd cried for him and he angled his body closer to hers. Sora wondered if they might have kissed there, if fate hadn't chosen that exact moment to intervene—but he also found himself imagining Ava more than he would have liked to:

The sad goodbye he'd shared with her—playing it off like it was normal and natural, when he'd known it would be their last and his heart nearly broke for it—and how desperately he'd needed to comfort her that she was the only one to help the Dandelions carry out their mission, when she'd doubted herself. He'd needed to do it for Kairi's sake (who also was way too hard on herself, and didn't give herself enough credit), and hers.

And proving he wasn't completely gone, he also thought of Riku, Donald, Goofy, the King, Roxas, Naminé, Ven, Aqua, Lea, Xion, Terra, and all his other friends.

He even thought of all of those he'd maybe damned, because he wasn't sure of anything anymore.

And when Sora got back… Things weren't as they should have been at all:

He found he was somehow twisted, and still wanted to lash out a bit: like he had with the Foretellers.

And somehow, some way, another, younger version of himselfdid exist (the Master of Masters thought it was a trick at first) and wanted to fight him… until they realized that—unlike what had been done with Roxas—they neededto merge.

…Also, that Luxu had been Xigbar or vice versa (how Sora had missed this, he didn't know), so that guy had been a thorn in his side of his own making.

And had still been when Sora came back, thinking he needed to bring the Master of Masters back (not knowing that this older Sora was him, and so he was already here), and that he needed to follow that half-baked persona Sora had made back in the day.

It was all a massive headache.

But nothing was as bad as Kairi—for whatever reason—somewhat acting like Ava now. (Or had she always, and he just hadn't put two-and-two together until now?)

And while Sora knew he should have rejected that, and once had… he was now moved by it, and had no idea where his head was anymore.

Though maybe this was what he deserved… That someone who had played with fate—for the "greater good", be damned—have his life be just as much a toy to some higher power.

They had finally gotten their happy ending… and mostly it was that: happiness and love: The day that he and Kairi had finally married on the beach—her just in a simple white dress, with paint brushes in her hair and still being the most beautiful vision Sora had ever seen—was the epitome of that.

But sometimes Sora bowed his head under the showerhead and cried, while his past self (did he still exist? yelled at him. Or was it just his conscience?

And Kairi (Ava), still so pure—something he would always love and protect her for—would never know any of this.

Sora promised himself.

**Author's Note: So... as fun as this story was, I don't believe any of it (of course). I thought I'd say that, since the summary might have made it seem like I do. I don't really think that either theory (Sora being the Master of Masters or Ava being Kairi or vice versa) is a thing. But either of them are, I highly doubt they are at the same time. And more likely than not... Kairi is Ava or has some sort of connection to her, over Sora being the Master of Masters. But it's still fun to play around with, all the same!**

**Also, this is for my best friend's birthday! Hope you liked it, dear!**


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